Elementary Macroeconomics II (PEARL program)

Spring Semester, 2017

 

Room D201 Dokuritsu-kan, Hiyoshi Campus

 

Instructor: Yoshimasa Shirai

TA: Marco Attilio Federico

 

Textbook: Charles I. Jones, Macroeconomics third edition, Norton, 2014

(The textbooks are sold at Hiyoshi Co-op bookstore)

 

Week 1 (April 11)

                 Introductory Lecture

                      How do economists look at Macroeconomy:

                                 Markets: Goods Market, Factor Markets, and Financial Markets

                                 Goods

                                 Factors of Production: Physical Capital and Human Capital

                                 Financial Assets and Money

 

                      What you have learned so far and what you are going to learn in this semester.

 

 

Week 2 (April 18)   

                Lecture on Ch. 7

                      How do economists look at Labor Market?

 

                          Wages, Employment and Unemployment in long-run perspective

                          Labor Market Equilibrium in the long run.

                          Unemployment  (Natural Rate of Unemployment)

 

Week 3 (April 25)

                         Quiz 1 (on Ch. 7)

                Lecture on Ch. 8

                       How do economists look at prices of goods?

 

                       CPI and Inflation

                                           Money and Quantity Theory of Money

                       Real and Nominal Interest Rates

                                           Costs of Inflation

 

TA Session No. 1 (Time and Place T.B.A.)

                                     

Week 4 (May 2) 

                Quiz 2 (on Ch. 8)

                Lecture on Ch. 9

                                                How do economists look at business cycles?

                                                         Introduction to Short-run

                                                         Potential Output

                                                         Okunfs Law

                                                         Philips Curve

                                                         The Great Depression

 

TA Session No. 2 (Time and Place T.B.A.)                                    

                  

Week 5 (May 9) 

                Quiz 3 (on Ch. 9)

                Lecture on Ch. 10

 

                        Recent example of recession.

                                                The Great Recession

 

TA Session No. 3 (Time and Place T.B.A.)

 

Week 6 (May 16)

                Quiz 4 (on Ch. 10)

                Lecture on Ch. 11

                                    How do economists look at short run relationship between interest rate and output?

 

                         IS curve

 

TA Session No. 4 (Time and Place T.B.A.)

 

Week 7 (May 23)

                 Lecture on Ch. 11

                                      Micro foundation of the IS curve

 

Week 8 (May 30)

                 Quiz 5 (on Ch. 11)

                 Lecture on Ch. 12

                                   How do economists look at central bankfs role in setting interest rate?

                                   How does central bank choose interest rate?

                           

                                           Monetary Policy and Interest Rates

                                           The MP curve

                                           The IS-MP Diagram                             

 

TA Session No. 5 (Time and Place T.B.A.)

 

Week 9 (June 6)

                 Midterm Exam (40 min)

                 Lecture on Ch. 12

                       How do economists look at relationship between output and changes in inflation?

                                           The Philips Curve 

 

TA Session No. 6 (Time and Place T.B.A.)

 

Week 10 (June 13) 

                 Quiz 6 (on Ch. 12)

                 Lecture on Ch. 13

                              How does central bank respond to various macroeconomic shocks?

                                   Is there any systematic response?

 

                                      Monetary Policy Rules and Aggregate Demand

                                      AS/AD Framework

 

TA Session No. 7 (Time and Place T.B.A.)

 

Week 11 (June 20)

                 Lecture on Ch. 13

                                  What can we understand by using AS/AD framework?

                                        How economy responds to various economic shocks.

                                  Are predictions of the AS/AD frame work have good empirical evidences?

                                  What is modern monetary policy? How are they understood?       

 

Week 12 (June 27)

                 Quiz 7 (on Ch. 13)

                 Lecture on Ch. 14

                                   Why and how do a collapse of financial market affect macroeconomic activity?

 

TA Session No. 8 (Time and Place T.B.A.)

 

Week 13 (July 4)

                 Lecture on Ch. 14

                                   What you will (should) learn in future

 

Week 14 (July 11) (Time and Place T.B.A.) 

                 Quiz 8 (on Ch. 14)

                 Final Lecture

                                  

Other big questions in macroeconomics

 

TA Session No. 9 (Time and Place T.B.A.)

 

Final Exam Week July 22 (Sat) ~ August 2 (Wed)